


Separate Ways

by kenezbian



Category: Rooster Teeth Productions RPF
Genre: Angst, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 05:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenezbian/pseuds/kenezbian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael took the job at Rooster Teeth and needs to break it off with Ray. (Song is Alex Clare's "Too Close")</p>
            </blockquote>





	Separate Ways

The buzzer near Ray’s front door went off, and he jumped. Who the hell would come all the way to Queens to see him at his shitty little apartment?

He shrugged, paused his game, and walked over to the small speaker, leaning heavily on the intercom button. “Who is it?”

“Fuckin’ Michael, you asshole, open the door before I get shanked.”

Ray’s face lit up and he pressed the button to unlock the door quickly. He wasn’t expecting Michael for another couple hours.

He heard the older man’s footsteps charging up the stairs, and he unlocked the deadbolt and let him him, quickly shutting the door behind him and re-locking it. “The fuck you doing in the city so early?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Fucking asshole boss let me off early and I was closer to New York than I was my own damn house, so I said fuck it and came here.”

“How you know I’d be home?” Ray raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“Because you don’t have a job and you’re broke as fuck and all you do is record videos for Achievement Hunter anyway.” Michael’s lip curled in his signature sneer and he laughed. “You’re such a prick.”

The two men flopped down on the beaten-up couch and Ray interlaced his fingers behind his head. “You know, we’ve got some time to kill before we head out, do you wanna…?” He left the question open-ended, knowing his friend would catch his meaning.

Michael’s face suddenly turned serious, and he cleared his throat. “About that…”

_**You know I’m not one to break promises,** _  
_**I don’t want to hurt you but I need to breathe.** _

Ray swallowed and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and staring at the redhead. “I’m listening.”

Michael took a deep breath and sighed. “Jack offered me a job in Austin again.”

The Puerto Rican smiled. “How’d you turn him down this time?”

“I didn’t. I’m moving to Texas at the end of the month.”

Ray bit his lower lip and reached out for his hand but Michael quickly stood up and crossed the room to the tiny window overlooking the next building’s roof. Ray started pulling a hangnail. “When… How long…” He cleared his throat.

“About three weeks ago. I said yes right away, I knew it was a mistake the first time I said no and I wasn’t about to say it again.” He drummed his fingers on the windowsill to try to fill the awkward silence.

_**At the end of it all, you’re still my best friend,** _  
_**But there’s something inside that I need to release.** _

“So what’s gonna happen with… us?” Ray asked tentatively.

Michael turned around quickly and stared at the younger man. “Ray, you’re still my best friend. Don’t deny that.”

Ray knew by the look on Michael’s face that he was frowning, and he tried his best to soften it. “But you want to keep it at just friends.”

“I think it would be best that way.”

_**Which way is right, which way is wrong,** _  
_**How do I say that I need to move on?** _  
_**You know we’re heading separate ways.** _

Ray heaved a sighed and stood up. “You swear you’re not lying?

Michael held his hands up and shrugged. “What else do you want me to say?”

“I want the truth, Michael. I think it’s the least I deserve.”

“YOU deserve?!” The taller man pointed to the paused game on the TV. “Last time I checked I was the one with the fucking job with them and you’re the one just sitting on your ass doing shit for free!”

“And the last time _I_ checked, _I_ was the one that befriended _you_ in that fucking AHTV stream! _I’m_ the one that asked you to send me a friend request, and _I’m_ the one that got you more involved with Achievement Hunter! You might’ve been doing Rage Quit before ever meeting me, but if it wasn’t for me that’s all you’d still be doing.”

Michael stared at the smaller man, dumbfounded. He’d never seen Ray get so mad.

Ray’s fists tightened at his sides. “Drop the act. You waltzed in here and told me this big news and you’re trying to pretend it’s no big deal but I know you too well for this shit. Knock it off and tell me how you really feel.”

_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**There’s nothing I can really say.** _  
_**I can’t lie no more, I can’t hide no more,** _  
_**Got to be true to myself.** _  
_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**So I’ll be on my way.** _

“Truth? Fine. I’m fucking stoked to go to Texas. I can’t wait to get there and start working with all my favorite people and finally stop being a fucking fanboy.” His words were dripping with hubris and sarcasm alike. “I can’t wait to get out of shitty New Jersey and start doing what I want instead of what I’m good at.”

He took a step closer and grabbed Ray’s wrists and pulled him in to him, pinning his arms between their chests. “The only part that’s awful about the whole thing is I have to leave you behind.”

_**You’ve given me more than I can return,** _  
_**Yet there’s oh so much that you deserve.** _

Michael’s brown eyes locked with Ray’s nearly-black ones and he frowned. “I came here early because I wanted to let you down gently, wanted to make sure you agreed we were still friends before we went out tonight. And I’m fucking _pissed_ that you’re being such a goddamn prick about it. I know you’re the reason for a lot of shit in my life, you cunt, and I didn’t want to hurt you!”

“Then maybe you should’ve told me before, like back WHEN JACK FUCKING ASKED.”

“And risk you drifting away from me before I moved? Fuck that, Ray. You say you know me, fine, I know you too. And in order to make it hurt less you’d find reasons not  to hang out as often and then when I moved you wouldn’t talk to me as much and goddammit THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANT.”

Ray broke free of Michael’s grasp and pushed his shoulders. “How about instead of telling me what you don’t want, you start telling me what you do want!”

_**There’s nothing to say, nothing to do.** _  
_**I’ve nothing to give,** _  
_**I must live without you.** _  
_**You know we’re heading separate ways.** _

“I WANT YOU, DAMMIT!” Michael’s shout seemed to silence the whole building. “I want you and I want us to be happy and I want us both to work at Rooster Teeth and goddammit Ray I don’t know what else to do about it anymore!”

Ray’s heart was pounding in his ears and he felt his face flush, but he kept quiet.

Michael cleared his throat. “I’m not happy in Jersey. I’m happy in Austin. Both my trips there taught me that and I’m not about to pass that up again, not ever. And I hate that I have to choose my happiness over yours right now because I know the minute I hop that train back to my house your heart is gonna break and you’re gonna miss me and I know that because that’s what’s gonna happen to me too.”

_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**There’s nothing I can really say.** _  
_**I can’t lie no more, I can’t hide no more,** _  
_**Got to be true to myself.** _  
_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**So I’ll be on my way.** _

Ray ran his fingers through his hair, brushing a couple stray curls out of his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”

“Of course you didn’t and it’s because I never told you. I’m the one that should be sorry,” Michael snapped at him. “You deserve better than me. I’m a prick and I’m too proud of myself. I want to be more than this friends-with-benefits things we have, I have for a while, but I’m not good enough for you and I’m too much of an asshole to do the long-distance-relationship thing right.”

The smaller man stumbled backwards and sat down on the threadbare couch, and Michael knelt on the floor in front of him. “I don’t want to lose you but by trying to keep you I’ll drive you away. We really are better as friends.”

_**So I’ll be on my way.** _

Ray reached out carefully and twisted a loose red curl around his finger for a moment before tucking it in with the rest. He opened his mouth to say something and choked on the lump in his throat. He saw the smile tug at the corner of Michael’s mouth, and he swallowed and tried again.

“Do you think I’d be happy in Austin? If I came with you, I mean.”

Michael pursed his lips and scratched the back of his neck. “I think you could be but the trouble is getting you there. I’m staying with Jack until I find a place. There’s not room for both of us there and he’s a grumpy bitch anyway.”

_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**There’s nothing that I can really say.** _  
_**I can’t lie no more, I can’t hide no more,** _  
_**Got to be true to myself.** _  
_**And it feels like I am just too close to love you,** _  
_**So I’ll be on my way.** _

Michael grabbed Ray’s chin and tilted it up so he could look at him properly. “Look, let’s forget about it now. There isn’t anything either of us can do outside of what we’re already doing. You keep working on your videos, I’ll get out to Austin and start working there, and maybe I can get them to notice you the way they noticed me.”

Ray nodded once and reached for Michael’s free hand, squeezing the strong fingers in his skinny ones. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Michael’s and closed his eyes.

It was a long time before either of them moved, but finally Ray stood up and disappeared into the bedroom. He came back wearing a nicer pair of jeans and a plain black shirt, and he smiled. “You hungry?”

Michael smiled. “You know it.”

_**So I’ll be on my way.** _  
_**So I’ll be on my way.** _


End file.
